Mayor Eric Adams issued a stark warning Thursday, predicting New York City will spiral into chaos if socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani wins November’s mayoral race. In an exclusive interview on the porch of Gracie Mansion, Adams said Mamdani’s “anti-cop, soft-on-crime” agenda would undo the progress his administration has made in reducing crime.
“Look at his policies — if you empty out Rikers Island, that’s going to have a major impact,” Adams told The Post, referring to Mamdani’s plan to significantly reduce the jail’s 7,600-person population. “It’s going to go back to the communities that crime came from.”
Adams, a former NYPD captain, also criticized Mamdani’s proposal to send social workers instead of police officers to respond to domestic violence incidents — a policy Adams described as dangerous and naive.
He recalled the deaths of NYPD Officers Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera, who were fatally shot while responding to a domestic violence call in East Harlem in 2022. “They were assassinated responding to a call that [Mamdani] now says we should send social workers to,” Adams said. “This is a recipe for disaster.”
Adams didn’t hold back in calling Mamdani’s platform a threat to public safety, saying, “We’re going to see some real errors if he’s elected. His policies are harmful to the city.”
During the wide-ranging interview, Adams also addressed a recent lawsuit filed by former NYPD official Tom Donlon, who accused the mayor of running the department like a criminal operation. Adams dismissed the claims as “baseless” and “politically motivated.”
He praised current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch for her leadership and confirmed she’d remain in the position if he’s reelected. “She’s the commissioner as long as she wants to be,” Adams said, highlighting her implementation of “Q-Teams” and targeted deployments to crime hotspots.
Despite entering the race late as an independent, Adams said he isn’t fazed by his underdog status. He argued that he’s had to spend most of his term “cleaning up the mess” caused by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s policies — including bail reform and the “Raise the Age” law.
“Cuomo is running from his record. I had to fix his mess. Curtis [Sliwa] doesn’t have a record. I’m the only one who’s delivered results,” Adams said.
With the field now including Mamdani, Cuomo, Sliwa, and Adams himself, the moderate vote is likely to be split — potentially giving Mamdani a clear path to victory. The 33-year-old Democratic Socialist from Queens is currently the only candidate with a consolidated progressive base.
Still, Adams expressed optimism about his chances, saying the public is only now starting to hear his side of the story after 15 months of what he described as “lawfare” over dropped federal corruption investigations.
“It’s amazing that people still say, ‘We want to be with this mayor,’” he said. “Now I get to finally tell my story — the story that hasn’t been told for the past three years and seven months.”
